A Better Anniversary
by Undead Author
Summary: "...you've no idea how much pressure you have to put on coal to make pearls." Peeta/Katniss, fluffeh fluff fluff. One year after Mockingjay. rrreeeead and review! :D


**I'm not entirely happy with how I ended this one, but I do love the concept!**

**Peeta/Katniss 4eva~**

Before I even enter our cottage, I am greeted with an ocean of smells I have long since come to recognize: Peeta is baking. Normally I wouldn't give it a second thought, because he's, you know, a baker, but for the past month and a half he has been acting rather secretive and hasn't been near the bakery connected to our cottage in a while.

As I open the door the small hits me even harder. I see that he's set out a dozen cupcakes, which sends me back in a wave to a time before the seventy-fifth Hunger Games, back when I scraped together a few extra pieces of game so I could get some baked goods for Prim's birthday-

_Prim_. I realize with a jolt that today is the one-year anniversary of her death. One year today my baby sister has been gone from this earth. I am about to fall to my knees and weep (which I haven't done in quite a while, mind you) when Peeta comes through our bedroom door. "Hi, sweetheart. You're home early." I blink back the tears and hold it in, for Peeta. He looks so happy.

I bite my lip before I say, "Yeah, there wasn't really much activity in the forest today, so I… I came home early."

He kisses me and I feel even worse. I open my mouth to tell him about the anniversary (how could he forget?) but he turns and grabs one of his cupcakes. "I made these for you," he said. They have a light purplish icing on top of them, and they smell familiar.

I decide that one couldn't hurt, not in the state I'm in, so I take the one he hands me and take a small bite into it.

Oh, no. Not this. Not today.

My eyes fill with tears and I can't hold these back. I swallow and manage to choke out, "Peeta, what's in the icing?"

He blinks. "What-?"

"The icing! What did you make it with?"

His brow furrows. "Well, I- I crushed up some primrose and-"

I knew it. I knew it and I can't take it, not on this day, not when the wounds of Prim's death have only just started healing. The tears fall freely now and I collapse into his arms. "Wh-why would you do that?"

"Do what?" he asks, and I can't believe it, he's utterly clueless.

"Primrose, Peeta! The icing- today- one year-" I have never been this inarticulate in my life.

He smiles, but not out of spite or pure happiness. It is a smile that lets me know that he sees what I'm thinking, that he's been there before. He squeezes me and says soothingly, "I know, Katniss. I know it's today. But you know what she died for? She died for a world in which our children could live without a Games. She died for a world that promoted love instead of evil. She died for the world that she could never have."

Even though I don't want to accept it I know that it's true. I sniffle, ashamed of myself for losing it in front of Peeta. He doesn't seem to mind, though—or notice. He just strokes my hair and assures me that it's going to be okay without really saying anything.

After I've calmed down, we sit and talk, hands entwined. It's refreshing to finally talk about everything that happened to us (we've been keeping unusually quiet since the Games ended).

An hour and a half later, my stomach rumbles in the middle of one of my sentences. Peeta laughs. "Bet you could really use one of those cupcakes now." I nod.

I reach for one, but he stops me and grabs another one. "Eat this one."

I frown, suspicious. "…why that one?"

"It's just—it's special!" he says with a hint of a smile.

I take it cautiously, examining it for any abnormalities. But it seems to be a regular cupcake, so I take a bite. My teeth hit something hard, however, in the middle.

I grimace and run my tongue along my teeth, to make sure I haven't chipped anything. "What did you put in here? Rocks?"

His smile now practically splits his face in two. "Look at it, Katniss."

I pull the cupcake back so I could see what is in it. My mouth drops as the light hits a flash of gold in the cake. I gingerly grasp it with my index finger and thumb and pull it out. Gasping, I drop it. In the cupcake is a gold ring with a pearl embedded in the band.

Peeta hastily stoops to pick it up, rub it on his shirt, and holds it out to me. "It's… it's for you."

My mind, working at an alarmingly slow rate, instructs me to say, "What is it?"

He laughs. "It's a ring, Katniss." Pausing, he says, "It's an engagement ring."

I struggle for breathing as I wrap my mind around what's happening. "It's—it's an engagement ring?"

"Yes. You've no idea how much pressure you have to put on coal to make pearls."

I'm laughing, and I'm crying, and Peeta's kissing me, and I think this is the beginning to a new anniversary.


End file.
